Huntington Woman Pleads Guilty to Stealing $866K from Boss

A Huntington woman pleaded guilty Friday to charges of stealing more than $800,000 from her Locust Valley employer to fund lavish vacations and other luxuries.

Lori Maceluch’s guilty plea to one count of grand larceny and two counts of criminal possession of a forged instrument in front of Nassau County Supreme Court Judge Alan Honorof, comes six month after she was indicted on 378 counts of criminal possession of a formed instrument. Honorof said she will be sentenced March 11.

Maceluch, prosecutors said, used her position as a bookkeeper for an architecture firm where she worked for 15 years to steal $866,114 over a six-year period from May 2005 to September 2011.

During that time, the 48-year-old forged a firm partner’s signature on 568 checks she wrote to her self, prosecutors said.

The Nassau County District Attorney’s office said she was able to disguise the theft by fraudulently enhancing legitimate expenses in the company’s financial records.

The stolen cash was used for expensive dinners and luxurious vacations to the Berkshires, Nantucket Island, Fire Island, Florida and the Dominican Republic, prosecutors said. She also spent thousands of dollars on credit card payments at various retailers including Lord & Taylor and Bon Bon’s Chocolatier, prosecutors said.

The scheme ended after an internal company audit found discrepancies in the accounts payable and accounts receivable records, prosecutors said. She was terminated and the district attorney’s office was notified.

Rashed Mian has been covering local news for the Long Island Press since 2011. He graduated from Hofstra University in 2010 where he studied print journalism. Rashed, the staff's multimedia reporter, covers daily news for the web, shoots/edits feature videos and writes about civil liberties. He loves Afghan food and sports. Rashed is also a caffeine freak. Email: rmian@longislandpress.com. Twitter: rashedmian